MIXED METAPHORS IN THE BIBLE

 Andrew Wilson has written an interesting article in the recent Christianity Today magazine in which he starts out by saying that “figures of speech influence how we think about the subjects themselves – probably more than we realize. They constrain our thinking, for better or worse.”

Thus, he gives the example of the various examples of imagery used to characterize the people of God: salt of the earth, light of the world, city on a hill, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a field, a garden, branches on a vine, sheep in a fold, crops at harvest, warriors in battle, citizens of heaven, the bride of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Each metaphor highlights different aspects of what it means to be God's people as well as the privileges and responsibilities we carry as a result. We need them all. If any of them is missing, we will quickly become imbalanced in ways that threaten to damage or divide.”

Wilson then zeroes in on two specific images of the church to illustrate his point. It is pictured in the Bible as both a body (Romans 12:4-5; I Corinthians 12:12-31) and a household (Gal. 6:10; Ephesians 2:19; I Timothy 3:15). In a body, each component of it is necessary in order for the whole to function adequately. The important implication of that imagery is to stop anyone thinking that they are independent from the others or superior or inferior to the others.

But from the household metaphor we learn that there is a certain type of order and structure to be maintained, and therefore it may be up to some within the household to shoulder more responsibility than the others.

Both images need to be kept firmly in mind at the same time. Otherwise the church may descend into chaos (the danger of the body metaphor taken to an extreme) or become a rigidly authoritative to the point where only one or two people in the church run the whole show (the danger of the household metaphor only).

Wilson also applies these two metaphors to the question of the role of women in the church. I Timothy 2:11-12 appears to strictly limit women's participation in church life whereas Paul in I Corinthians 14:26 has them prophesying, offering prayers, and teachings. The first passage reflects the image of the church as a household while the second one is based on the idea of the church as a body.

One can also look at the three “lost” parables recorded in Luke 15 as another example. First we are given the parable of the lost sheep as an example of God's love for each single one of us. But taken by itself, it could be misinterpreted as the Gospel of Thomas does, namely that the one sheep was more beautiful than all the others and that was why the shepherd lavished all his care on him to the detriment of the 99 who were just left to fend for themselves while the shepherd went off and ignored them. And that concept appears to be reinforced by the moral of the story: “There will be more joy in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous who needed no repentance.”

The second parallel parable is shorter and describes the woman who finds her missing coin and restores it to the other nine of hers. She rejoices with her neighbors over her good fortune just as the the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents.

Thirdly, we are given the most elaborate, and famous, example of all in the parable of the lost son.

Just look at what we would be left without if any of these three stories were missing. Taken to its extreme, I have at least twice in my church life witnessed a misapplication of the lost sheep parable. One occurred at a congregation in which the youth pastor spent so much time trying to win over one rebellious teenager who occasionally attended the youth group that he totally ignored the rest of the junior high and senior high sons and daughters of regular church members that were in the group. If he had followed the example of the lost son instead, he would have gone out of his way to assure the loyal attenders of the group that they were valued as well.

A second example occurred in a very small start-up church I attended. The unofficial leader of the congregation had attended seminary and had made friends with a man who was a very nominal member of another church. That man's wife preferred to attend our services instead and so the man did everything he could to sabotage our church. But our church leader was so intent in trying to win his friend that he sided with him instead of with my wife and myself over a trumped-up charge made by the friend. As a result, we were forced to leave that church without comment rather than cause a church split which the congregation could not afford.

The second parable, that of the lost coin, is incomplete in itself since a coin has no volition in itself. So perhaps the only takeaway message we can safely glean from it which is not found in the other two is that we should share the good news of the gospel with others.

We get by far the fullest story from the longer parable of the prodigal son, which addresses the issue of the older brother, who is assured by the father that he is also well appreciated and will inherit all that the father has as well as having the blessing of never having to leave the father's house to suffer the way his errant brother has.

Wilson's conclusion can best be summarized by the sentence he gives right after the title of his essay: “A right understanding of the church depends on keeping the whole spectrum of biblical images in view.”